Games

Birthplace of XtremeEnglish, with everyone inside, it looks like.

Many people at this time of year play games indoors: Monopoly, Bridge, Canasta, Chess, Checkers, Candyland, Old Maid, Twister, Charades. The kids get a new game as a gift, or the weather outside sucks, or the family is gathered together and the acceptable topics of conversation are quickly exhausted—when I was growing up, the most often discussed topic was recipes, go figure, as in “Babe makes the best brownies ever,” or “Aunt May adds a few grains of nutmeg to her homemade pancakes, and they are quite exquisite,” or “Jack loves my mother’s whortleberry pie”….end of story—and out comes the deck of cards or the beloved, beat-up box containing the game board, playing pieces, or whatnot for the favorite game.

My oldest niece’s clan played two rousing games of Chinese Checkers one afternoon when I visited last summer. They were quite good at it, too. The last time I had played Chinese Checkers prior to this was one very chilly June day on the neighbors’ porch at Lake Sallie, which would be at least 50+ years ago.

In general, most games tend to put me to sleep. Only Bridge is sufficiently varied to offer enough challenge, though it's been more than 20 years since I last played. Ditto Trivial Pursuit, and I have passed the peak age for Trivial Pursuit, which I think is around 50. By the time you hit 50, you have enough experience of the world to be a formidable player, but your memory hasn’t started to go to the dogs. I have resolved, however, to add more simple fun to my days, and my thoughts have turned to games.

A couple of years ago I bought a game to have around for visiting offspring, and today I got as far as taking the plastic wrapper off the box. I was going to bring it along to some friends’ house for after-dinner entertainment, but I forgot (!) it.

Maybe I should just smoke dope.